THE St Andrew South Police yesterday removed vendors who sell in front of schools in the Duhaney Park area of Kingston, after confiscating badges depicting violent images.

The badges, which were sold for between $50 and $100, were taken from vendors who sell at the gates of the Edith Dalton James High, Pembroke Hall High and Duhaney Park Primary schools, as part of the constabulary’s fight against violence in schools.

“We are starting this drive to rid the schools of vendors who are selling items which depict characters of violence,” said Superintendent Delroy Hewitt, head of the St Andrew South Police Division.

The makers of the badges, apparently trying to cash in on the stand-off between entertainers Vybz Kartel and Mavado in the so-called ‘Gaza/Gully’ rivalry, used the image of Kartel with what are believed to be two chrome 9mm pistols, bearing the words ‘Calabar Empire’ in bold type.

The other badge also showed the entertainer holding what appeared to be a firearm to the head of an image which bears the resemblance of his arch-rival, Mavado, and has the words, ‘Mi murder people inna broad daylight’ and ‘Gaza, a far way from di’ (a sentence which is obviously incomplete).

The Observer was unable to ascertain whether Kartel had anything to do with the production of the badges.

The badges were said to be hot items among schoolchildren from both primary and high schools.

“This is totally unacceptable for grown adults to be selling these violent images to children, some of them below 10 years old. We are asking for the assistance of the general public in getting rid of this scourge,” Hewitt said.

Schools have been the scenes of violent incidents and has resulted in the deaths and serious injury of students in recent times.

The rivalry between Vybz Kartel and Mavado has also added fuel to an already tense situation in schools, but the police said they would not sit idly by and allow the situation to get out of hand.